The Slow Motion Retirement Plan

[dhagood]

things came to pass pretty much as i expected. about 6 weeks or so ago, my wife asked if i would drive with her to boulder to look at a couple of dogs in which she might be interested. yes dear, i said.

she's a 4 year old cattle dog/great pyrenees mix. she's a sweet tempered dog, but like most rescue animals she has issues. she's been dumped twice (first owner to second owner, second owner to pound) and is pretty insecure about life. she'll relax over time.

on the property front, my wife started mentioning that she'd sorta kinda been thinking about maybe buying the 35 acre plot of land to the south of us. i couldn't think of any reason why we shouldn't, so when she finally said she really did want to buy it, i said "yes dear". we close at the end of the month.

years ago, when i started hatching my evil retirement plan (what's the use of having a plan if it's not an evil plan?) i wanted a shop in which to tinker with machinery. i figured if i got 5 acres or so, i could be pretty loud with my tinkering and not disturb anybody. come to find out that my wife, how at first didn't want anything to do with my evil plan, got on board in a big way and has indulged her hither-to-unknown land baroness tendency. so now i have 75.5 acres to fence and maintain. guess i'm going to grow some grass and i can now tinker just about as loud as i feel the need.

life is pretty good, all in all, and i hope everybody has a happy and prosperous new year.

 

[dave1949]

she's a 4 year old cattle dog/great pyrenees mix. she's a sweet tempered dog, but like most rescue animals she has issues. she's been dumped twice (first owner to second owner, second owner to pound) and is pretty insecure about life. she'll relax over time.

Looks like a cutie. I bet you and your dear wife will get her settled down and feeling at home.

Happy and prosperous New Year to you too!

 

[vtsnowedin]

Yes Dear.

 

[GLyford]

Congrats, she looks like she will be a fun companion, and sure to keep you on your toes.

Our cattledog was ball obsessed, which made keeping him active and tired out relatively easy...though he would be sure to let you know when it was time for another round as the immediate vicinity (and often your lap) would suddenly sprout fetch toys. When he was a young lad, we had to keep 2 in circulation otherwise he'd hoard the ball when he brought it back and we'd never get him winded enough for a moment's peace to get anything else done. One of the ball throwing gadgets or a tennis racket helped keep your arm from wearing out before he did.

In some ways, our current bunch is easier: I just tell the lab she needs to chase the aussie shepherd and then they wear each other out.

 

[Egbert]

dhagood, I retired from the city life about 18 months ago after a 40 year career in maintaining a citywide computer network. Now, I'm in a small town and have 110 acres to fill my time. Built a 30x50 barn, bought my first UTV, my first tractor Kioti DK50 and even my first dump trailer. Life has certainly changed - for the better My wife and I, along with our 6 dogs, are looking forward to building a new home and enjoying God's creation. It's truly amazing how quickly life can change - even for a 59 year old geezer

 

[Gary Fowler]

I bought 11 acres, built my shop and house, bought my tractors and then retired. A couple years ago (doggy will be 2 in Feb and weighs over 100#), the wife decided she wanted a German Shepherd dog to keep her company. He is still a puppy in many ways but is starting to get pretty aggressive to intruders. This morning, he began wanting outside by jumping at the door (we have to keep it locked to keep him in as he can open it otherwise), then he ran to the front and
began barking like crazy, came back to the door, jumped up and opened it ran in side, made a circle thru the kitchen and ran back outside wanting us to follow him. Wife said someone must be out front. I went outside and the garbage collector who normally runs Mondays but didn't was picking up the trash. I normally put it out on the road but since it was outside normal delivery, the man had came inside and was pulling the trash can out to the road and the GSD was all over barking, lunging at him etc. He is getting to be a very good guard dog. This is the second time he has ran in to get us to go outside when delivery persons had stopped outside the fenced in yard. My house is so soundproofed that we cant hear any outside noise unless it is very, very loud but the dog hears everything.
He also keeps the chicken on their side of the yard and out of wife's flower bed plus any Canadian goose that wanders off the pond is fair game to him.
Even though he now is 100+ pounds, he still thinks he is a lap dog and likes to get up on me when I am in my recliner watching tv. After he gets a good body scratch, he is most times content to move back to the floor but sometimes he will just settle in for a while till my legs go to sleep and I have to make him move. Dogs are very entertaining especially after you are retired and have plenty of time to watch them and their antics. He follows me everywhere when I am doing chores and keeps an eye on me, which is more than I can say for the wife.

 

[dhagood]

Our cattledog was ball obsessed

so is this one! we throw away at least one ball a week out of an active inventory of 4 to 6. after a couple of weeks (tops) they are just worn out.

 

[newbury]

Intelligent looking new boss. How long do you figure it will take her to break you in?

Your retirement plan sounds similar to ours.

Ours has been slightly derailed by the birth of a new grandson, at least that's my excuse. It keeps my commute up to about 850 miles per month. We drive down to Mississippi from DC, spend about 2 months there, and drive back. Because of the long drives (usually do it all in 1 day) I'm waiting for a dog to find me.

 

[GManBart]

things came to pass pretty much as i expected. about 6 weeks or so ago, my wife asked if i would drive with her to boulder to look at a couple of dogs in which she might be interested. yes dear, i said.

she's a 4 year old cattle dog/great pyrenees mix. she's a sweet tempered dog, but like most rescue animals she has issues. she's been dumped twice (first owner to second owner, second owner to pound) and is pretty insecure about life. she'll relax over time.

Thank you for opening up your hearts and home to that cutie! She'll settle in and repay you with lots of love

 

[GLyford]

we throw away at least one ball a week out of an active inventory of 4 to 6.

We found out the hard way that the felt and glue in a tennis ball is itself slightly abrassive, and it will also trap fine sand. Acts sort of like a buffing wheel on the teeth. When he was older, his canines were worn down into truncated cones, and he had a perfect 2-5/8" tennis ball socket formed by all the tips of his teeth.

If we had known, we would have switched to the rubber ones the same size sooner. The "chuck it" ones seemed the most popular for our dogs, being closest to a "real" tennis ball, but if yours chews those up too fast "kong" makes ones a little more durable, but they are heavier and bounce different and ours didn't like them as much. If you must use a tennis ball, we found "wilson"s lasted much longer than "penn"s.